


Debriefing

by megastarstrike



Category: Subnautica (Video Game)
Genre: Between-Canon, Conversations, Gen, Post-Canon (for the first game?), Pre-Canon, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-11
Updated: 2019-03-11
Packaged: 2019-11-15 08:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18070361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/megastarstrike/pseuds/megastarstrike
Summary: When Robin Goodall met Ryley Robinson, she entered the room with questions and determination.When she left, she landed on Planet 4546B with more questions and more determination.





	Debriefing

“Contractor Goodall, are you prepared for your meeting?” Sam asked.

“Just hold on one moment.” Robin gulped and wiped her hands on the fabric of her wetsuit. She took a deep breath before plastering a polite smile on her face. “Yes.”

“You may proceed.”

And with that, the door to a multipurpose room opened, where two white swivel chairs were arranged to face each other. Behind those chairs, an alien containment tank extended from the ground to the ceiling. Colorful, intriguing fish swam inside the habitat. It was difficult to tear her eyes away.

The door slammed shut behind her, drawing her out of her trance watching the fish inside the tank. A red light flashed in the corner of the room. Alterra was watching.

A man sat in one of the swivel chairs. His hair was styled up in a mohawk with some blue streaked into it (though it was noticeably losing its color at the roots). He wore a wetsuit similar to hers. He offered her a tired smile, though his eyes were kind nonetheless.

“You must be Robin Goodall,” he said.

The voice was raspy, small. It was not at all what Robin was expecting from the person who had aided Alterra in discovering an entire planet.

Robin blinked and caught her silence. “Oh, um, yes. I am Robin Goodall. And you are Ryley Robinson?”

“Yes. Pleased to meet your acquaintance. Would you like to take a seat?”

Robin almost smacked her forehead. How had she forgotten to do something as simple as that? She took a seat on the other swivel chair, swinging back and forth.

“What are you on Planet 4546B for?” Ryley asked.

“I will work as a xeno-linguist in Zero Sector. I am Vesper Ground Crew.”

“A xeno-linguist? So you’re interested in alien life forms?”

“Yes!” Finally, something she could actually elaborate on. “There are creatures out there I couldn’t imagine, let alone understand. But I can still talk to them.”

“How?”

“I do what they do. If they bathe in liquid nitrogen and talk with their feet, I put on a coat and I pull a handstand. It’s simple.”

Ryley nodded, his sharp expression softening. He faced the alien containment tank with an odd expression Robin couldn’t place. “The life on 4546B really is beautiful, isn’t it? Have you seen it yet?”

“Only on paper.”

He raised his palm to the glass. A dark blue fish with a giant yellow eyeball slowly approached the palm, then pecked the glass.

“This is a Peeper,” Ryley said, a hint of fondness in his voice. His lips curved into a soft smile. “They’re carriers of Enzyme 42, as I’m sure your superiors have debriefed you on.”

Robin nodded absentmindedly. Her eyes followed the purple heart-shaped creature with an orange head, then a blue and yellow fish shaped like a boomerang, then to every other fauna swimming inside the column. Her chest tightened, and she forgot how to breathe. Seeing them up close was a wildfire to the candles that were the scientific data profiles handed out during meetings.

“Goodall.”

Robin snapped out of her trance and blinked. She turned to Ryley. “Yes?”

“Any questions you would like to ask?” Ryley said. His hand was off the glass now and returned to reality. “That’s the whole purpose of this meeting, after all.”

“What was Planet 4546B like?”

He chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair. “You’re really going to make me answer that?”

“You looked like you wanted to say something about it,” Robin said, “I think you wanted an opportunity to talk about your experiences.”

Ryley took a deep breath and shut his eyes. And in this time, with him leaning against the chair and face as old as stone, he did not look like the twenty-seven year old she was told about, who could be considered a child by her, considering her decade of experience over him. It felt like he was an elder, someone who had lived past two hundred and regretted every second of it. Wise beyond his years. A mentor figure. It felt strange to have a younger person be a superior to her.

“Hearing everyone’s distress signals then going to find a destroyed lifepod… kind of sucked,” Ryley said. “So did my first encounter with crashfish. And almost being killed by leviathans. And crabsquids. And being warped by warpers. Which if you ever get the chance to be warped, don’t take it. It hurts like hell.”

“Duly noted.”

He shifted in his seat then opened his eyes. When Robin squinted, she could see the galaxy reflected in them. “But nature… so scary, yet so breathtakingly beautiful. Have you seen the Kelp Forest at night? The shadows of Sea Treaders under Seamoth lights? Anything in the Blood Kelp Zone? Hell, even seeing the silhouettes of leviathans was enough to make me stare in awe. Being on that planet wasn’t fun, but they made it just bearable enough for me to be here right now.”

Robin’s throat felt dry. Her eyes flickered up to flashing red light watching them, then settled on the completely relaxed man in front of her. “Thank you for your answer. I’m… I’m excited to be working on this project.”

“Be excited. This planet is beautiful.” His starry gaze faded to his normal expression. “Any other questions?”

“No. I think that’s it for now.”

“Great. It was a pleasure meeting you.”

“The pleasure’s all mine.” Robin extended her hand, which Ryley firmly took and shook. The red light switched off.

Ryley’s grip tightened so hard his knuckles paled into an off-white. His eyes sharpened and narrowed, and his next words came out stronger than she ever expected. “Listen, Goodall. Hear this, and hear it well.”

Robin flinched at the intensity behind both the grip and his stare but managed to nod.

“If you find something on that planet worth protecting, protect it with your life. Do not learn this the hard way. Understand?”

There was a storm on his face, fire in his eyes. The air pressure had dropped long ago, and the winds of regret thrashed whatever hopes he had for living. Still, the intense flames remained bright and wild. He was determined about  _ something. _ Robin just didn’t know what that something was yet.

“I… Yes, understood.”

“Good.” His grip relaxed, and his face relaxed into a passive expression. He gave her a polite smile as the doors opened. “Have a nice day, Goodall. I hope you enjoy the planet as much as I did.”

Robin smiled back. “Thank you. Have a nice day.”

And with that, she walked out of the room, and the doors shut behind her.

Her head spun. It was too much information at once, and the mystery task Ryley seemed to hint at didn’t ease her worries.

Yet she walked out with a confident smile. She had a job to do, and she’d be damned if she didn’t do it properly.

Sam raised an eyebrow at her smile. “Had a good talk?”

“Yes,” Robin said, “Very good talk. And Sam?”

“Yes?”

“I think I’m ready to go down to the planet.”

“Now? Are you insane?”

“Maybe.”

Sam’s eyebrows furrowed. She looked her up and down before sighing. “Fine. I’ll talk to my superiors about it. But don’t hold your breath.”

“Yay! Love you, Sam.”

“... Love you, too.”

 

* * *

“Did you make it inside the sanctuary?” Sam asked.

Robin paused to surface and catch her breath. Her gaze drifted down to a wound from a Bruteshark. It hurt, but allowing it to show in her voice would alert Sam. “Yup.”

“Anything unusual?”

“Like what?”

Sam’s voice lowered, her tone almost suspicious. “We're getting odd readings from your biometrics.”

“Malfunction maybe?” Robin suggested.

“I want to make sure. We're sending down a disposable bioscanner. Take a sample and send it up in the cargo rocket.”

“Okay, I’m on it.”

The transmission ended, and Robin took the time to bury her face in her hands and scream silently. Lying to her older sister felt deeply wrong. It was something she hadn’t done for years, but Sam knew Robin had kept the same telling tics she had since she was a child. If she remembered those tics, Robin would be done for.

But as Robin talked strategy with the alien (no matter how irritating it may have been at times), Ryley’s words repeated in her head.

_ “If you find something on that planet worth protecting, protect it with your life.” _

Robin wouldn’t let Alterra get to this alien. Cross her heart and hope to die.


End file.
